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Debate Over Role of Taylor Law in Strike
December 15th, 2005

If bus drivers, train conductors and other MTA workers join picket lines just after the stroke of midnight tonight, they could be docked two days’ pay for each day they walk off the job. TWU Local 100 itself could also be heavily fined. That’s because the state’s Taylor Law of 1967 made it illegal for public employees to strike.

The law is “an elephant in the room,” Joshua Freeman, a labor historian at Queens College, told Newsday. That elephant should not only be noticed, it should be strongly supported if it’s going to stand, says Nicole Gelinas in the City Journal. “If New York’s leaders want to continue to rely on the Taylor Law to prevent future strikes, they must stick it out to the end if the TWU walks,” she writes, adding that State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s tough-guy reputation — not to mention his gubernatorial aspirations — could be damaged if the law isn’t enforced. That’s because Spitzer won an injunction in court explicitly banning the strike in order to reinforce the Taylor Law.

The Classmate-Wearing-Yarmulka also takes a tough stance. “There’s a reason why the Taylor Law was passed,” says the law student blogger. “When a private company’s employees strike, the only ones harmed are the company and its shareholders. But when public employees strike, everyone is harmed.” A response to the blog entry notes that fines against the union and its members are sometimes dismissed as a condition of the strike resolution.

But the law can still sting. “Workers didn’t know the Taylor Law was as bad as it was,” George McAnanama, a transit union board member during the strike of 1980, told the Daily News. “It hurt when they took out the fines. After the strike, most bosses threw us a little overtime here and there. They didn’t want a disgruntled workforce.”

Yet, you may have noticed, the Taylor Law obviously didn’t prevent that strike.

Some other city employees want the transit workers to take a stand, fines or no fines. “I wish my union membership was as tough in negotiations as the TWU has been,” grumbles the Reality-Based Educator. The Educator echoes frustrations of other municipal union members who are miffed about the results of their leaders’ negotiations with the Bloomberg administration. Many see this as a symbolic battle to regain ground lost by other municipal unions.

By Hilary Russ on December 15, 2005, 3:11 pm
In category: Gotham City, Transportation | 7 Comments »

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7 Responses to “Debate Over Role of Taylor Law in Strike”

  1. Larry Littlefield Says:
    December 15th, 2005 at 3:57 pm

    The Taylor Law is legitimate because the TWU is a near monopoly of an essential service.

    It would be like Con Edison demanding a permanent exemption for all taxes, for the firm and its executives, or else it will switch off electric power at midnight — and not turn it on until it is satisified, and reserve the right to make the same threat in exchange for even more two years from now.

  2. Adam Piontek Says:
    December 15th, 2005 at 4:58 pm

    I understand the reasoning behind the Taylor Law, and I think I agree with it – but my question then is, if the Taylor Law prohibits strikes by public employees, does it provide any alternative, equivalent course of action for public employees to take as a bargaining tactic when they feel they’re being shafted by the public which employs them?

    Are public employees just supposed to take it?

    I suppose, though, if the cause of their being shafted is corruption of the public organizations that employ them, they need to fight tooth and nail to expose said corruption. I wish somebody would take on the MTA… And the Port Authority, too, while they’re at it.

  3. Hilary Says:
    December 15th, 2005 at 5:53 pm

    The law does lay out different courses of action in the event of a contract dispute for public employees. (Check out this Cornell University page for more info.) The law gave public employees the right to unionize. But “[m]unicipal labor leaders condemned the Taylor Law’s strike ban, which denied them a union’s most potent lever,” according to .

  4. Hilary Says:
    December 15th, 2005 at 5:55 pm

    Here’s the rest of that post:

    …according to an article by The United Federation of Teachers.

    Sorry about that!

  5. Larry Littlefield Says:
    December 15th, 2005 at 8:56 pm

    Public employees have the right to binding arbitration, among other things. So despite the loss of the right to strike (which most of us don’t have — it’s called quitting) they do not lack for the ability to get raises.

  6. Damek. » Blog Archive » More On The Transit Situation Says:
    April 19th, 2006 at 2:17 pm

    [...] New York has a law (the Taylor Law) that makes it illegal for public workers to strike. This makes some sense since their striking doesn’t just hurt one company it its shareholders, it will hurt the city and everyone in it. Imagine if the NYPD went on strike. In fact, the NYPD (and teachers, and others) have worked without a contract a few times because of this. On the other hand, this robs public employees of a powerful bargaining method for ensuring they get their worth in pay. I wonder what the alternative equivalent might be. In this specific case it seems the reason they are dissatisfied stems from corruption and disrespect on the MTA end. As a New Yorker in general, I wish somebody (a la Spitzer, but he would probably be the wrong person) would do something about the MTA. Perhaps the TWU itself would do better for itself to rigorously combat the corruption of their members’ employer… Or maybe that’s a stupid thought. [...]

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    May 19th, 2011 at 6:16 pm

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